I will be taking delivery of an 08 convertible within the next week and I am anxious to upgrade the audio. My first thought was to upgrade the head unit to a Kenwood DNX7100 and I have a store that will do that including the interfaces for about $1,800. As I read many of the posts, it sounds like I may get more bang for the buck if I instead keep the stock head unit for now and go with amps and speakers. I don't think I need subs, but I would like it to sound much better than it does stock.

If I can keep the total under $2500 I may be able to do it all at once, otherwise I will need to do a phased approach. Your thoughts and wisdom will be greatly appreciated including if there is any "thow away" work or components if I go with speakers now and do the head unit later.

 

If you're going to do an incremental changeover then to choose what to do first you have to decide what you want more right now, better sound or better functionality & features.

As long as the stock amp & speakers are there the system is going to sound bad. Yes, you likely will hear a slight improvement with an aftermarket head (I did in my Avalanche where I still haven't gotten around to replacing the amp & speakers) but replacing the amp & speakers will give you a DRAMATIC improvement. The flip side of the coin is that to get good iPod support, Bluetooth, NAV, etc you have to put in an aftermarket head.

The only potential throw-away components in the mix would be if you start with amp & speakers and buy a harness to get the signal from the factory head. However a harness isn't truly necessary, you can tap into the factory harness directly and get line-level signal. When you put in an aftermarket head an interface module WILL be necessary in order to maintain chimes and Onstar, if you have Onstar.

So, make your choice, features or sound quality to start with. Recommendations start flying from there. Congrats on the new Vette!

 

I am definately looking for quality over features at this point. Sounds like the amp/speakers are the way to go. Suggestions on speakers & amps please. Remember that I do not need huge bass, but would like much more than the factory provides.

 

Speakers are very difficult to recommend because they all sound different to people. What I do recommend in general is using a set of 6.5" component speakers in the doors. A lot of people have found that not having rear speakers is just fine in our cars because the cabin is so small, but individual tastes vary. With a vert, I think they're unncessary and I have installed the JL convertible Stealthbox subs. If you do want rear speakers, then a coaxial 5.25" speaker of the same brand as whatever component you choose, preferably of the same line if possible, would be the way to go.

For amps, a 4 channel should get it done. The Alpine PDX-4.150 is a nice sounding amp and fits in the passenger cubby. I had one installed there prior to switching to an Xtant x604 that is installed at the front of the trunk of my vert(under where the top stows). Though I don't have alot of hours with it yet, I've been very impressed by the Xtant. Very warm, smooth amp with tons of reserve when you need it. My good friend spkrboy has a tremendous fondness for the older(early 90's era) Rockford Power series of amps. Zapco is another name I'd recommend without hesitation. Those are all fairly pricey brands though, the Alpine being the least expensive at about $700 new. At the less expensive end of things you have the Elemental Designs amps(pentavolvo speaks well of them), some folks also like the newer Kenwoods and PPI amps.

That's barely scratching the surface. You need to grab a few CD's of what you'd typically listen to and head to a brick & mortar and do some listening. You'll never get a true feel for what different speakers and amps will sound like in your car, but at least you'd get a feel for the relative difference amongst the brands so you can make a decision.

 

This is probably a dumb question... but where exactly is the "passenger cubby"?
On the door ?

 

It is the passenger side divot in the trunk area. One on each side and then the center one that is roughly twice as big. Some call these cubbies. I am sure there are other names as well.

 

except the C6 doesn't have the big center compartment that that C5 does, it only has the smaller ones on each side.

 

It's a tough call. I chose to pull the head unit and install the DNX7100 first because I wanted the Nav right away. I planned to do the rest of the system shortly afterwards. What I found was that the sound was so much better that I put off the amps/speaker replacement until this winter. It's not audiophile quality, but it's a big enough of an improvement to make system tolerable.

I know others here will tell you that the factory head unit is good, but mine was not.

-Ben